The final Cheffins collective vintage sale of 2022 grossed over £1.6m on Saturday 22nd October, with an 88 per cent sale rate.
Leading the sale was the Bainbridge Collection of rare and early tractors which saw some considerable results, with a 1918 Alldays & Onions ‘General Purpose’ tractor achieving £47,168. Similarly, a 1916 Bates Steel Mule Model C sold for £34,304 whilst a 1919 Overtime Model N sold for £45,560. This collection offered some of the earliest and most desirable tractors from the pre-war period and attracted purchasers worldwide, with a 1918 Illinois and a 1920s Wisconsin Model E both being sold to a US-based buyer. The Bainbridge Collection was offered alongside another 210 vintage and classic tractors, with the section grossing over £1m in total.
The vehicle section was also keenly anticipated, with a valuable 1925 Rolls-Royce Phantom with Jack Barclay bodywork, selling for £50,920 to a Lincolnshire based collector. Also available was a 1909 White Model-00 steam car which sold for £27,408. In addition, there were over 30 motorcycles on offer, with a Ducati Mike Hailwood Replica achieving £13,152 and a Aermacchi Ala D’oro selling for £7,672.
Another major draw at the October Vintage Sale was the RH Clark model collection. These 12 models owned by the esteemed engineering author, Ronald H Clark, saw strong prices paid, with one of the highlights being an Atkinson single cylinder three deck table engine which achieved £5,152. There was also a duplex twin cylinder horizontal mill engine which sold for £6,944 and a semi-portable engine which made £6,720.
The automobilia section also saw a number of strong prices paid, with a Hammond Commercial fuel pump, which was originally from an East London bus depot, selling for over three times its estimate at £5,376 and a Super Shell glass petrol globe from the 1950s doubling its presale estimate and selling for £2,128.
The second part of the Roger Austin collection of fairground memorabilia, which included over 100 lots of historic gallopers, figures, clowns, rounding boards, signs and various other vintage fairground items was sold in its entirety, with many of the lots making well over their presale estimates. Highlights from the collection include, Basil Breeze, a 7.25ins gauge live steam 2-4-2 locomotive which realised £6,160 and Uncle Sam, full size double seat wooden galloper horse in the style of Andersons which achieved £4,256. Cheffins will sell another circa 100 pieces of fairground memorabilia from the collection in April 2023.
Oliver Godfrey, Head of the Machinery Department at Cheffins says: “We have had quite the year throughout 2022, with each of the Cheffins collective sales grossing over £1m. This clearly shows that the market for vintage items continues unabated, with buyers looking to invest in tangible assets, particularly within today’s inflationary environment. We have seen that political and economic instability often brings with it an uptick in investment in all things vintage, as buyers look for nostalgic purchases which have the potential to see greater growth than more typical investments. This sale really meant that we finished off 2022 with a bang, with the demand for modern classics within the tractor section continuing to hold firm, but also stellar prices throughout the vehicles, motorcycles and automobilia sections. We have also seen an increase in international purchasers at our Vintage auctions, with buyers from the USA, Australia and throughout Europe joining us both at the saleground and online. Next year looks set to continue in much the same vein and we already have a number of exciting vintage consignments ready for the first collective sale of 2023. We hopefully now have many happy buyers with sheds full of restoration projects and new pieces within their collections to work on over the winter months before we kick off the collective sales again next April.”
The sale took place on Saturday 22nd October at the Cheffins Machinery Saleground, Sutton, near Ely, CB6 2QT.
For more information, please visit www.cheffins.co.uk, or call Cheffins auctioneers on 01353 777767.
All results reported are total prices, inclusive of commission rates which are as follows:
Tractors and vehicles – 6 per cent plus VAT
Motorcycles – 8 per cent plus VAT
All other items – 10 per cent plus VAT